The mission of Openly Secular is to eliminate discrimination and increase acceptance by getting secular people – including atheists, freethinkers, agnostics, humanists and nonreligious people – to be open about their beliefs.

I can’t think of any times off the top of my head that I’ve been discriminated against for being an atheist or a secular humanist, but then again I’m not sure how many people even know that I’m those things, so I thought that Openly Secular Day would be a good day to be open about that and see what happens. Also, while I haven’t experienced discrimination based on being secular, many people have. The idea behind Openly Secular Day is that people are more likely to be accepting of something when they know someone who fits the description: “For example, 68% of those who personally know gay or lesbian people favor marriage equality, compared with just 32% of those who don’t know anyone (Pew Research, June 2013).” (Source). So if people like me “come out” as secular, perhaps it might make things easier for others.